Recorded in London, The Jezabels' second album The Brink wrestles with themes of homesickness, despair and alienation.
At one point in Beat on Beat Hayley Mary sings, "What's the point in life?" but she trills so sweetly, like The Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser, that it's hard to work out whether she's delirious or in pain.
If there is pain on The Brink it's cleverly masked by catchy pop hooks and big choruses like on The Look Of Love which starts out sounding like Big Country before morphing into a glossy mid-1980s pop song.
Elsewhere such as the title track and The End, The Jezabels draw from mid period U2 and Echo & The Bunnymen to produce a ringing guitar sound designed to fill stadiums.
On that score, The Brink should happily consolidate the formula of the band's 2011 debut Prisoner, which picked up an ARIA award and the Australian Music Prize.
That said I'm less convinced The Brink is a progression for the Sydney quartet's sound. The album is slick, radio-friendly power pop filled with songs that pass without imprinting themselves on the memory. It's almost throwaway but hey, this is a band playing stadiums and supporting the likes of Depeche Mode and The Pixies in Europe, so maybe I'm missing something.
To these ears the real star is Hayley Mary whose voice gives the songs personality with a style that's somewhere between Tori Amos and Kate Bush.
* The Jezabels album The Brink (MGM) is out now.
